Interactive Visualizations for Workplace Tasks

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems pose usability challenges to all but the most sophisticated of users. One challenge arises from complex menu structures that hinder system navigation. Another issue is the lack of support for discovering and exploring relationships between the data elements that underlie transactions performed with the system. We describe two dynamic, interactive visualizations, the Dynamic Task Map and the Association Map, which were designed to assist users in ERP system navigation and data exploration activities. We present two laboratory studies comparing the use of these visual components to SAP interfaces. Results from an initial empirical evaluation revealed performance gains when using the visual components compared to the default SAP interface. A follow-up study showed users’ overall preference for the visual interface, although no significant user performance differences were detected. User-reported mental effort associated with the visual interface was lower compared to the SAP table-based presentation.